Jerry’s Tour des Alpes 2002 – Day Fifteen

Lecco  Milano  Genova  Nice (by train)

I had a good breakfast at the hotel in Pescate, packed down my washed up cycling clothes and cycled slowly into Lecco town in my ordinary shirt and shorts.

There were some different trains going from Lecco to Nice this day, I had checked up on the trenitalia.com website (by looking at the italian version). I had also managed to figure out that there should be at least one train to Nice where cycles was allowed on the train all the way. It turned out it was easiest to take that train (even though it went a bit late), so I did not have to find something to package my bicycle in. The cost for the trip was like 43 euro (of which 12 was for the bicycle).

I walked around Lecco trying to find a supermarket, and since I had plenty of time before the train was to leave, I found a big shopping center and was able to leave my bicycle and had someone have a look at it while running around buying food for the trip.

I went down to the lake again and found someone who took the photo of me here. I was a bit sad last year that I had not remembered to get even one photo with my civil clothes.

I met two other cyclists at the train station (germans with tents and all) who was also to take this train to Milano. We simply put our bikes right into the train wagon and could sit nearby. That was good.

In Milano I had a wait of over an hour before the connecting train would come, but I stayed at the station (it was also very hot outside). I lunched there and talked a little with an older couple who had been in South Africa, but lived in Vancouver, Canada.

Then I unfortunately have nothing very positive to say about the rest of the time of the holiday. The train ride to Nice from Milano, was as bad as you could possibly imagine. It would probably be more comfortable on trains in Bangladesh. I hanged up my cycle in the front wheel (where I had a decal that protected the rim a little). But then a whole bunch of cycling scouts (or what kind of party it could have been) took over the wagon with there bicycles. I got a seat in the wagon next by, but it turned out that nearly all seats were booked in advance. I got out and hoped to get a seat at the end of the train, but it had already been filled up. I got back to the original wagon and could not really get in and had to stand in a door-opening and later a bit longer into the wagon all the way to Genova and it was very hot. Then I managed to get one of the few seats, but then an almost unbelievable family arrived with kids they could not fully control and it was a constant movement of all the family and hysteria for at least an hour. First just before Ventimiglia (border station), which it took ages to reach, the family left, but then a drunk obscene older couple from Holland (I believe) arrived in their place – thankfully they fell asleep though. At Monte Carlo, a fine lady took the seat next to me and first a little later realised the company from the high sounds (?) of the sleeping drunk couple that was heard in the whole wagon. I was quite happy when I could leave the train! (It was almost as exhausting as one of the cycling days.)

I cycled back to the hotel in Nice, which was not very good, but my bicycle bag stood just where I had left it. I had booked the cheapest room, without a shower in the room. I had serious problems in packing down my bicycle in the room as it was not much bigger than the bed inside (and had to put the bag on the bed). It was very difficult to remove the pedals, even though I had a very good wrench in the bag (Tacx), but I could not expend enough effort as it ached too much in my breast. I finally had to do a last effort upon which I scratched up half my arm. Lifting the case with the bicycle was also true torture.

I went out on the town and had a pizza and walked down to the old village and had a cup of coffee, before I went to bed.

The travel home the next day was not without effort either, but there were no serious problems arising. I was soon home and could cycle down to my favourite café (Mauritz Kaffe) downtown Gothenburg, the next day. Watch out for the next story!